


Taste of the Weird

by hazelNuts



Series: 13 Days of Halloween [4]
Category: The Shannara Chronicles (TV)
Genre: (drug use not by Amberle and Eretria), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cemetery, F/F, POV Amberle, Recreational Drug Use, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-24
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-08-24 10:58:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8369659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hazelNuts/pseuds/hazelNuts
Summary: Eretria invited Amberle to hang out at the graveyard with her. Well, it sounded more like a dare, so how could Amberle possibly say no?

  ‘I didn't think you'd actually come,’ Eretria says. She moves away from where she’d been leaning against the entrance, and falls into step besides Amberle. Their path lighted by the flashlights on their phones, they make their way through the graveyard.
  
  It’s one of the older ones in the city, with graves no later than the 1930s, statues and mausoleums for the richer interred, and all of it is just dilapidated enough to make being here on a dark night creepy.

(Fourth fic for my 13 Days of Halloween multi-fandom fic series)





	

**Author's Note:**

> If you think I forgot any tags, please let me know in the comments.

‘I didn't think you'd actually come,’ Eretria says. She moves away from where she’d been leaning against the entrance, and falls into step besides Amberle. Their path lighted by the flashlights on their phones, they make their way through the graveyard.

It’s one of the older ones in the city, with graves no later than the 1930s, statues and mausoleums for the richer interred, and all of it is just dilapidated enough to make being here on a dark night creepy.

‘I said I would, didn’t I?’ Amberle shoots back. Truthfully, she hadn’t been sure she’d come either, then she’d remembered Eretria’s challenging look when she’d asked her if she would be there, and there was no way she was staying home.

‘So you did. This just doesn’t seem like your thing. Or your crowd.’ Eretria nods at the backs of the football players and cheerleaders ahead of them.

‘Lorin and I used to date. I know these people.’

‘When was the last time you _spoke_ to any of them?’

Amberle grapples for an answer. She asked one of the cheerleaders if they’d be cheering for the girls soccer team this year again, but she can’t remember her name.

‘That’s what I thought,’ Eretria smirks.

‘Well, it’s not like these are your buddies either,’ Amberle points out.

‘They paid me to get booze and weed. Right now, they’re my best friends.’

Amberle swallows the question of if that includes her, and walks silently beside Eretria until they reach a small clearing at the back of the graveyard. The others have already made a circle around a little fire. She realizes Eretria has disappeared from her side, and stands uncertainly at the edge of the clearing. Just when she’s decided to go look for Eretria, the girl reappears with a cooler and several plastic bags. The group around the fire cheers at the appearance of the alcohol, then cheers again when Eretria pulls a clear plastic baggie out of her coat and throws it at the closest football player.

Amberle is at a loss for what to do. She really doesn’t feel like joining the circle to get high or wasted, or both. Even when she and Lorin were dating she rarely hung out with them, preferring her own friends. That’s not why she came, anyway. She came for Eretria. The girl has a pull on her, and Amberle wants to know if it’s mutual.

‘Here,’ Eretria says, holding out a red cup. There’s one for herself in her other hand.

Amberle smells the bitterness of beer as she accepts the cup. She takes a sip, and almost spits it out. _How cheap is this stuff?_ Beer isn’t her favourite drink, but this is disgusting. None of the others seem to have noticed that Eretria swindled them out of their money.

‘Did you give them oregano, too?’ Amberle asks, nodding at where one of the cheerleaders is plucking something out of the baggie.

Eretria grins. ‘No. They got exactly what they paid for. After I took my cut.’

Amberle laughs. She can’t help it. Eretria looks so proud of herself.

‘Come on. Sit down,’ Eretria says, tugging on Amberle’s arm.

‘Uhm.’ Amberle looks around. There isn’t much place to sit; the football team and cheerleaders have taken up most of the grave-free space. Eretria is already sitting down, leaning against a headstone and looking up at Amberle expectantly.

‘They’re dead. They won’t notice.’

Eretria tugs on her arm again, and this time Amberle lets herself be pulled all the way to the ground. She gingerly leans against the headstone next to Eretria’s. Eretria is right, the dead won’t notice, probably, but it still feels a little disrespectful. Eretria shakes her head with what Amberle is going to interpret as a fond smile, and Amberle forces herself to relax a little more.

Eretria nudges her foot against Amberle’s leg.

‘Give me your cup,’ she says, grabbing the cup out of Amberle’s hand before she can react. She empties both her own and Amberle’s, then sets them aside.

Amberle looks at her in confusion.

‘I’ve got something better for us,’ Eretria explains. Out of one of the plastic bags Amberle had noticed earlier, she pulls a bottle of wine and a couple plastic wine glasses. ‘I think this’ll be more to your taste.’

‘You got me wine?’ Amberle asks, stunned. ‘I thought you didn’t think I would come?’

Eretria shrugs. ‘It’s not that great. It’s still cheap, but it’s better than that.’ She points with the wine bottle to the cooler with beer. ‘Sort of.’

Amberle accepts her wine, takes a sip, then quickly swallows. Her grandfather taught her that you need to sip wine slowly, let it sit in your mouth for a second to really taste it, but this wine she doesn’t want to taste for too long.

‘Told you,’ Eretria says. Then she tugs at the strap of Amberle’s shoulder bag. ‘What’s in here? Please tell me there’s food.’

‘There is,’ Amberle says, pulling out a bag of gummy bears and a bag of chips. ‘And some paper and pencils.’

‘You thought you could draw in this light?’ Eretria points up to where the trees are blocking the sky.

‘Or do some gravestone rubbings. These older graves can have pretty amazing stuff on them,’ Amberle explains.

‘That.. is kinda weird. But I like it. Never thought you had it in you.’

‘Thank you?’

Eretria hums and stares ahead. Amberle looks at her unabashedly. She wonders if Eretria would ever agree to model for her. It would be nice way to spend time together and get to know each other better. During breaks, they could go for walks, or just watch some television. If she could find out what Eretria’s favourite snack is, maybe she could bribe her with it.

Amberle is pulled out of her musings by Eretria jumping up and pulling Amberle up with her, almost making her spill her wine over herself. Eretria takes the wine from her and carefully sets it on the headstone she’d been sitting against.

‘Come on. You like weird? There’s something I want to show you.’

‘How weird? Amberle asks. She likes odd and old things, but she draws the line at freaky. Especially when she’s in a graveyard late at night.

‘You’ll see.’

Eretria grabs her hand, and Amberle is so surprised at the warmth that shoots up her arm, that she almost trips over her own feet.

They stop in front of one of the larger mausoleums. There is a name above the door, but Amberle can’t quite make it out. Years of being exposed to the elements has worn away some of it, and most of what is left is covered by vines and moss.

‘Oh my god, what are you doing?’ Amberle hisses when she sees Eretria fiddling with the lock on the mausoleum.

‘Don’t worry.’ Eretria gives the door a pull and with a load creak and a groan it opens, just enough so they can slip inside. ‘I come here all the time.’

‘You hide out in a mausoleum? Why?’

Eretria doesn’t answer, just steps inside.

‘Damn it,’ Amberle curses. She looks around nervously, then quickly slips inside after Eretria.

It’s cold inside, and damp, but a lot cleaner than Amberle expected. She’d expected dirt and bugs everywhere, maybe even a mouse or a rat or two, but there’s nothing but a thin layer of dust.

‘Look at this,’ Eretria says, directing her attention to the right wall. She aims her phone at where she’s pointing, and Amberle moves closer.

‘Are those pictures?’

‘Of the people that are buried here, yeah. Look underneath it.’

Eretria directs the light down. Below the pictures are small lockets. Amberle wipes a finger over one of the glass fronts to see what’s inside.

‘That’s hair, isn’t it?’ she says.

‘Yep.’ Eretria’s face is suddenly right next to hers, looking at the hair with amused bafflement. ‘People are so weird.’

Amberle looks to her side, and she could blame it on that terrible wine or the dead air in the mausoleum making her head funny, but the truth is that Eretria is _so close_ , and she smells nice, and she’s smiling, and Amberle just really wants to kiss her.

For half a second, Eretria leans into the kiss, making Amberle braver and reach for the girl’s waist, but then Eretria is pulling back and stepping away.

‘I’m not making out in a tomb. That’s too weird.’

‘So, if we were to go outside…’ Amberle says, walking backwards, squeezing through the doorway, and pulling Eretria with her. Outside, she presses Eretria against the side of the building, then waits.

‘What are you waiting for?’ Eretria asks.

‘For you to say it’s okay for me to kiss you.’

‘I bought you wine,’ Eretria points out.

Amberle brings her hands to Eretria’s cheeks, cupping them gently.

‘That you did,’ she says.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on [tumblr](http://fandom-madnessess.tumblr.com/).


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